1958 Fender High Power Tweed Twin 5F8-A Vintage Tube Amp 2×12 with Jensen P12N
Wednesday, January 8th, 2025
Up for sale, a 1958 Fender “High Power” Tweed Twin 5F8-A in excellent condition and in perfect working order. This Twin features a very original circuit, rehoused in an replica speaker cabinet and loaded with a pair of era-correct Jensen P12N alnico magnet speakers. Occupying a very narrow window in Fender’s golden age, the 5F8-A Twin was the pinnacle of Tweed era evolution and unmatched in power and headroom, first available in late 1957 and retired by January, 1960. This example was made in January of’58, and the “High Power” iteration of the Twin is arguably the most highly sought after vintage Fender amp ever produced. A whole different animal than the “Low Power” iteration offered through most of the’50s, the High Power 5F8-A pushes 85 watts via a matched quad of 5881 (6L6GC) power tubes with a single GZ34 rectifier. Essentially the same animal as the 5F6-A Bassman, yet with four power tubes, more massive transformers and a 2×12 speaker configuration, the 5F8-A Twin has all the hallmarks of its Bassman brother, with a Mid control and four-input design, allowing both greater tailoring of the tone and the ability to jumper the channels for additional interactivity and gain. Incredible headroom, touch-sensitivity and rich, textured growl are hallmarks of this Twin. The trebles bite, yet with a smooth, harmonically-rich character, the midrange is gutsy, and the low end is broad and focused, with notable depth that interacts famously with a broad range of pickups. The circuit retains its original Triad transformers, and all of the original yellow Astron capacitors are intact in the preamp. The smaller electrolytics in the preamp have been upgraded with high quality Spragues, and the power supply has been recapped with Spragues as well. All of the original pots are present, and two additional 1/4 jacks have been added to the righthand side of the chassis. The inside of the chassis retains its “HA” date stamp from January of 1958. The tube complement includes a matched quad of Mesa-branded power tubes, with a Ruby rectifier and a couple vintage preamp tubes from the likes of Telefunken and Westinghouse. The speakers are a matched pair of vintage Jensen P12Ns with clean dark green frames and date stamps from’62. The cabinet is a modern replacement, faithfully replicating the materials and size of the original. The faceplate retains its bright chrome plating, and some of the original white silkscreen text is still present, along with all of the chicken head knobs.
